News & Events

"The River," a solo exhibition by artist Linda Cross in celebration of the Quadricentennial at the Palmer Gallery, November 5 - December 17, 2009.

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The James W. Palmer III Gallery at Vassar College will present a selection of works by Linda Cross in The River, an exhibition in honor of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, on view from November 5 through December 17. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 5, from 5:00-7:00pm. On Saturday, November 14, at 1:30pm, Cross will speak about her work during an artist talk at the gallery. The reception, talk, and exhibition are free and open to the public. The Palmer Gallery is located in the College Center in Vassar’s historic Main Building.

The River, curated by Teresa Quinn, the executive director of campus activities at Vassar, will showcase Cross’s relief sculptures, which she constructs entirely of paper and acrylic to appear like real rock and flotsam. She based her work on real and observed scenes from the Hudson River as well as an outward reflection of her own appreciation for nature.

“Linda begins by soaking paper, then constructing the forms with paper and acrylic,” said Quinn. “During my visit to her studio in Elizaville, I was amazed to see this process of creation and transformation.”

“My long time tendency is towards an overall abstract format,” noted artist Cross, a resident of the Hudson Valley. “Contrary to the traditions of the Hudson River School, my viewpoint has focused on details rather than panoramic vistas.”

Inspired by the Hudson River’s “luminous light and wooded shorelines,” worthy of remembrance, Cross stated that in her work the “water-washed shores of the riverbank and the rocky creeks that flow into the Hudson are explored, remembered and reconfigured.”

Earlier works by Cross examined the cliffs on Monhegan Island, near the coast of Maine, and New Mexico’s wide expanse of mesas, arroyos. She noted that after moving to the Hudson Valley, her work became more and more reflective of the Valley’s natural environs. Cross’ work has been widely featured in museums across New York State, and in exhibitions from New Mexico to Connecticut and Massachusetts.

An illustrated catalogue will accompany The River,made possible in part by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

About Linda Cross

Linda Cross, a resident of Elizaville, NY, attended The University of New Mexico, Syracuse University, and The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She began her art career in 1959 as part of a group exhibition for The University of Chicago’s Fifth Annual Festival of the Arts. She has had solo exhibitions across New York, including a showcase at the Durham-Ziff Gallery (1985), Land Marks at A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery (1997), and other exhibitions at the Five Points Gallery in East Chatham (1988, 1992), the Davis and Hall Gallery in Hudson (2000, 2001), and most recently at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson (2005).

Cross’s work Gorge, in the exhibition Sticks and Stones (Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY), was singled out in a review in the New York Times on August 24, 2003, as “this exhibit's most substantive work , a brainteaser, . . . [with] a message about how nature is much too often scarred by careless litter and how this message can be created with facsimile.”

Cross has received a variety of awards and accolades, including the George Grosz Memorial Scholarship from the Arts Students League in New York, the First Prize for Work on Paper from the Columbia County Council on the Arts Juried Show, and most recently, in 2007/08, the Artist Fund from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

About the James W. Palmer III Gallery

Situated between the North Atrium and the Retreat cafeteria, the HYPERLINK "http://palmergallery.vassar.edu/"James W. Palmer III Gallery is at the heart of the College Center. Constructed in 1996, the Gallery was named and endowed by the Palmer family in 2000 in memory of their son James, a member of the class of 1990. Serving as an exhibition space for artwork created within and beyond the Vassar community, the gallery displays art of diverse mediums, themes, and origins. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 11:00am to 6:00pm, and Saturday, 12:00 to 6:00pm. It will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, November 26 – 28.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar Campus are available online.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.